it's not just about paying some government to have more but about putting millions to work who are now jobless because that's what happens in a boom. we put them to work. and, yes, spending's got to come down. are they so obtuse, to quote andy dufrane that they can't see this? and, yes, i'm talking about both sides. it's driving me crazy. how do i know that things would be so great if we could only get beyond the stupid politically created crisis? let's go over the reasons. first, in terms of how well we could be doing, think about this. the barely capitalist don't innocent that is europe has settled down into some sort of permanent no-growth mode and yet almost every one of the stock markets is doing better than ours. come on, washington, that's ridiculous. how can the markets in switzerland, netherlands, germany do better than us? how is that possible? because of you, washington. it's because of you. we've been kept back all because of you. second, before our politicians stepped in with the intransigence and anger, we were about to have an explosion in earnings. retail was stronger t